This invention relates to telecommunication systems that support broadband communications and more specifically relates to providing broadband communication addresses via an independent non-broadband channel in a wireless telecommunication system that does not support multimedia services.
Wireless telecommunication services continue to evolve. Earlier direct point to point two-way communication systems are being supplemented by, and in some situations replaced by, cellular communication systems. Multimedia enabled wireless communication systems such as the IMS IP-Multimedia System permit subscribers using multimedia enabled wireless devices to engage in voice communications, establish data communications over a broadband communication link, and utilize a broadband communication link while simultaneously engaging in a voice call.
Many telecommunication systems in current operation do not support such multimedia services. Some cellular systems support only voice channel communications. Other cellular systems such as GSM, TDMA (IS-136) and CDMA (IS-95) support limited bandwidth data communications such as short messaging system (SMS) messages in addition to supporting conventional voice calls; CDMA also supports narrowband data communication. Still other wireless communication systems such as CDPD Cellular Digital Packet Data (IS-732) and HRPD High Rate Packet Data also known as 1×EV-DO Data Only (IS-856) provide data only networks. Other wireless communication systems such as IEEE 802.11 systems, provide only broadband communication links for personal digital assistants (PDA) and portable personal computers equipped with an appropriate wireless modem.
Subscribers of existing wireless communication systems that do not directly support multimedia services may encounter circumstances where simultaneous voice and broadband data services are desirable. For example, a subscriber with a cellular telephone enabled for SMS messaging may also utilize a laptop computer with a wireless modem supported by a separate broadband communication service provider having a network infrastructure that is independent from the network utilized for cellular services. Such a first subscriber may desire to establish a voice call and simultaneously engage in broadband data communications with a second subscriber of the same or compatible services. Assuming Internet protocol (IP) addresses identify the first and second subscribers' broadband devices, each of these devices must utilize the IP address of the other device for communications. Although the first subscriber could utilize his cellular telephone to call the cellular telephone of the second subscriber and exchange IP addresses by the subscribers verbalizing their respective IP addresses to each other, this burden is awkward and not desirable. For example, the subscriber hearing the spoken IP address of the other may be in a mobile environment so that writing down (or typing on keyboard or keypad) is unsafe or not possible. IP addresses are easily misunderstood based on verbal communications because of the nature of the alphanumeric characters used in the addresses. Typically, the IP addresses are known by the computer and not by the users (non-technical people might have difficulties figuring out how to get IP address information). Therefore, it would be desirable to minimize such difficulties in exchanging IP addresses.